Episode 53: A Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: former US Rep Chris Collins

Locally Grown with Jim Fini

My guest today is American entrepreneur and politician, Christopher Collins. Chris served as the U.S. representative for New York's 27th congressional district (Buffalo NY area) from 2013 until 2019. Prior to his time in Congress, he ran for Erie County Executive in 2007 on a platform of smaller county government, lower taxes and operating efficiency and he defeated the Democrat incumbent with 63% of the vote in a county with 140,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans. Quite an accomplishment.
Unlike many of our elected representatives in our 3-tier constitutional republic, Chris was a successful entrepreneur and business guy long before he ran for public office. That means he built something of value to society that employed others in our free enterprise system. After earning his BS in Mechanical Engineering and MBA, Chris started his career as a mechanical engineer at Westinghouse Electric. In 1983, Westinghouse spun off their gear division, and Chris rose to be CEO of the Nuttall Gear Corporation located in Niagara Falls, New York. In 1997, Collins sold Nuttall to Colfax Corporation.
Chris moved to Florida a couple years ago and he and his wife, Mary, have three children and three grandchildren. Full disclosure: Chris’ younger brother Ted and I were fraternity brothers at Syracuse University.
Welcome to the Locally Grown Podcast Chris Collins.